The overall goal of the project was to create a school environment suitable for promoting inclusive education of children at risk of exclusion, with special educational needs and/or disabilities through the arts. Specific objectives (SO) were: SO1 to define a framework of useful tools for the inclusion of students at risk, SEN, or with disabilities through a methodology based on education through art SO2 to provide educators and teachers with knowledge, skills and competencies to facilitate inclusive education at school SO3 to test the "Thinking hands" methodology in 3 different countries, laying the groundwork for systematizing a European model SO4 to disseminate project results to local communities, inviting more schools to adopt the methodology developed during the project
The project aimed to respond to the need for greater inclusion of students in the classroom, with particular reference to pupils with learning, attention, language, motor or spatial-temporal coordination difficulties, with emotional or behavioral problems, or in difficult socio-economic conditions. The project idea originated from the lead partner's educational experience, the methodology "Thinking hands." This methodology starts from the idea of tactile education, which has demonstrated effectiveness on children's emotional and cognitive growth, applying it to art education for learners at risk of exclusion. The project was also meant to be an attempt to re-immerse children in "real life," promoting human contact, in contrast to the overwhelming immersion in virtual life and distance learning they faced during the Covid-19 emergency, which caused particularly negative impacts on students with disabilities or special educational needs due to the lack of accessibility of digital media.